Hidden Dragon (The Treasure of Paragon Book 7) by Genevieve Jack (best book club books .txt) 📕

“A taste of dragon’s blood for the orb. Only dragon’s blood. You will leave the fairy alone,” Sabrina offered.

“Done.” Demidicus’s answer came swiftly, his focus tightening on the couple as if he couldn’t quite believe Sabrina could pull it off.

Sylas stiffened. His gaze locked on Tobias. Feeding a vampire their blood had always been strictly forbidden. Sylas hadn’t ever asked why it was forbidden. He’d never questioned it. Clearly some rules Brynhoff and Eleanor had taught them were simply folklore used to control them. Was this one of those rules, or was there good reason behind the warning?

He’d seen the way Sabrina had changed after drinking Tobias’s blood. It definitely gave the vampires energy and strength. Was it wise to imbue the master with that privilege at the moment? Demidicus already enjoyed the upper hand in this negotiation. Why make him stronger?

But Tobias reached for Demidicus’s glass, then held his wrist out to Sabrina. She bit into his flesh and nearly filled the goblet. The redhead offered the goblet to Demidicus.

The vampire master snapped the orb off his scepter and excitedly turned it over to her. The exchange was made. Sabrina slipped the red crystal into the velvet cross-body bag that hung at her hip.

Demidicus sniffed the goblet. His eyes sparkled with excitement at the scent. “I never thought…” He shook his head. Raising his glass to salute Sabrina, he drained the cup dry.

Less than a minute later, Demidicus sagged against Sylas as if he were falling-down drunk. Tobias laughed and jiggled the vampire’s arm, using the touch to reposition him in his chair. The vampire could barely keep his head lifted.

“Good blood,” Demidicus mumbled.

“What’s wrong with him?” Sylas asked.

Sabrina smiled. “Nothing. Dragon’s blood is intoxicating to vampires. A little is like a snort of cocaine. A lot knocks you on your ass.” She wrinkled her nose. “He’s had a lot.”

Brilliant.

Standing, she turned to the women in white waiting behind them. “We will go back to our room now.” They were led from the banquet hall, the master drunkenly murmuring his thanks toward their backs.

Chapter Twenty-One

“This is exhausting,” Raven muttered. Her wrist ached from copying the symbols frantically while Avery drained the protective enchantment from the scroll.

Across the table from her, Clarissa rubbed her wrist, similarly afflicted. They’d been at this for hours, and it wasn’t getting any easier.

“We’re more than halfway there. We can’t give up now.” Clarissa pulled the elastic from her ponytail. The dark roots of her bleached hair had grown out since they’d left London. Between the tropical humidity and the magic she was doling out, her locks were caked in sweat. She ran her fingers through it, forming a messy bun at the top of her head.

“Fuck, I need a break.” Avery rubbed her eyes and stretched out onto of one of the tables.

“Go back to your tent,” Raven said. “You don’t have to sleep here.”

But her sister was already snoring.

Xavier pushed off his seat where he’d been observing them from the back of the tent and waved dismissively at Raven. “I’ll carry the lass,” he said in his heavy Scottish brogue. “She’ll sleep better with me beside her anyhow.”

Avery snorted as he repositioned her in his arms and carried her from the tent.

“We could try your translation spell on what we have,” Clarissa suggested.

Raven shook her head. “We don’t know this language or how many symbols equate to a single word or thought. The little I read of it before was from when I’d translated the entire page. We don’t even know if it’s meant to be read left to right or up and down. Without the entire text, I can’t guarantee the translation would be accurate.”

Clarissa sighed. “Tomorrow is another day.”

Raven gave her a hug before hurrying back to her own tent for a much-needed break. She swept Charlie from Gabriel’s arms and planted a firm kiss on her cheek. “How is my baby?”

Gabriel grinned. “Wait until you see what our baby can do.”

Raven’s eyes widened, tears pricking the edges. “I missed something else?”

Charlie’s development was unlike anything she’d ever witnessed in a human child. When she hatched from her egg, she was already the size of a six-month-old with wings like a cherub’s that could almost lift her off the ground. Now she’d grown to the size of a one-year-old who could pull herself up on the furniture with the help of her wings.

Gabriel insisted all that was perfectly normal and that her development would likely accelerate until she shifted for the first time into her other form. Dragons, he explained, were usually born in their dragon form and then transformed into their soma or human-looking forms at some point. It was different for everyone. That’s when their rings appeared.

Charlie didn’t have a ring and had never looked like a dragon. Her wings were also far different than a typical dragon’s. But dragon development, along with what she remembered about human development, was all they had to go on. The only certainty was that Charlie was one of a kind.

“Show me,” Raven said.

Gabriel sat down on the rug at the center of the tent and grabbed a coconut from behind him. “Sit, like me.”

She did, spreading her legs and seating Charlie on the floor in front of her. The baby waved her hands excitedly.

“Do you want the ball, Charlie? Ball. B-ball.”

Raven’s heart turned into a puddle in her chest at the sight of her oversized husband making baby talk. But what happened next melted the rest of her. Charlie put her lips together and said, “Ba, ba, ba.”

Gabriel rolled her the coconut. She squealed in delight and rolled it back to him.

“My God, Gabriel, she can practically say it. She definitely understands what it is. And look at her push it back to you.”

“Our daughter is extremely bright,” Gabriel said. “Just like her mother.”

Raven turned serious. There was something she’d been meaning to ask Gabriel, and she’d put it off long enough.

“According to the